


With Friends Like These

by OptimisticallyCynical



Series: Breaking The Hawk [4]
Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28736136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OptimisticallyCynical/pseuds/OptimisticallyCynical
Summary: His first class back after his fight with Demetri, Hawk is hit with sudden realization that Cobra Kai might not be the safest place for him after all.
Relationships: Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Series: Breaking The Hawk [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103372
Comments: 11
Kudos: 85





	With Friends Like These

**Author's Note:**

> Every one from Hawk's POV is so short and never has Demetri in it? Why? DX   
> Anyways, I had to add this part in before he gets home and realizes that he technically doesn't have any place to just breath anymore. XD Poor Hawk.

“Where the hell did you go?”

He supposed he shouldn’t have been to surprised that it was Tory who cornered him before he could even get into the dojo. She’d been texting him nonstop since their last tangle with the Miyagi do Fang pussies.

Still, he could only shoot her a halfhearted glance as he hopped off his bike and kicked down its stand.

“I got separated.”

It happened every once and awhile. They knew he normally went after Demetri and that Demetri had a tendency to run before he would resort to fighting. It wasn’t uncommon for him to get split from the main group. Although, normally he would end up wandering back to them afterwards, or at the very least would reply to their messages.

As the thought of how bad off he’d been in their last scuffle, and how they would have reacted if they had seen him flashed through his mind, he felt his fingers twitch on the handles of his duffle bag.

“Yeah no shit.” She seethed, stepping in his way when he tried to get passed her. “You haven’t responded to any of my calls or text either.” She continued, getting right up in his face.

He didn’t really have an excuse for that one. He hadn’t responded to any of his fellow Cobras, and had been avoiding them at school and around the neighbourhood as well. He wanted a few days to himself. A few days where he didn’t have to think about any of this. About anything.

“Kylar said he saw you with Demetri before you disappeared.”

“Yeah? So what?” Hawk snapped back. “I’m always going after Demetri.”

“And than again today at school, looking really chummy.”

“The principal was there,” He offered, “I can’t afford to get suspended.”

She didn’t say anything, staring into Hawk’s eyes like she could see parts of his soul.

“He told me you two are friends.”

“Were.” Hawk quickly corrected moving around her. “You really think if we were still friends I would break his arm.”

He tried to stomp out the flicker of guilt that turned in his stomach.

There were nights when he could still hear Demetri crying out in pain over what he’d done.

“People are complicate.”

Hawk couldn’t help but scoff at her statement. She had no idea how right she was there.

Out of nowhere, he felt her hand clamping down around his arm, yanking him back to face her.

“If you turn on us Hawk,” She didn’t finish, letting the silence between them speak enough for her.

He felt the heat rise in his face.

After everything he’d done for them. After all the times he stood at their side against everyone he’d known and cared about, she was questioning **his** loyalty?

He’d been here first. He’d been Cobra Kai’s running up champion in their first tournament in thirty years. He was the one who took most of the lessons to heart. He was the one who went after anyone who said anything bad about them or tried to use old members to make them look incompetent or weak.

He was their most ruthless and dedicated member.

_‘Cobra Kai’s little show dog.’_

And she thought that he would betray them?

“I won’t.”

He tore his arm out of her grip, not even wincing when her nails left deep marks against his skin.

She didn’t appear to have anything else to say to him, both of them falling silent as they finished the trek up to the doors of Cobra Kai.

His rage must have shown clearly on his face once he entered because members he could never be bothered to remember the names of, quickly made themselves scarce as he stormed across the room and to his usual side on the mat.

He all but threw his bag to the ground, ripping out his gi top and his belt.

Every cell of his being felt like it was vibrating. A restless energy coming from his chest and coursing through his limbs to the tips of his fingers and toes. He wanted to strike out at something, anything, to do whatever he could to finally silence the endless voices in his head. To break skin until Demetri’s words faded from his mind.

“What’s gotten into you?”

This time it was Kylar who approached him, dropping himself beside Hawk and starting on his leg stretches.

Hawk didn’t even bother to look over at him, instead turning his attention to getting ready for class.

Had he ever ignored Kylar in the past he knew what would have happened. Kylar would have grabbed at him, would have laughed in his face, thrown him into a locker, dunked his head down the toilet, shoved him into a garbage can. He would have sent Eli home with his tail between his legs and tears down his face.

But that was nearly a whole year ago. Things weren’t the same anymore.

Kylar had tried. Had turned back to insults the moment he recognized who Hawk was.

After sending his friend to the hospital with a fractured skull, it wasn’t something that he was dumb enough to keep up with.

Kylar left him alone now and even sometimes followed his orders because he didn’t want to be the next one to end up in the very same hospital bed.

But what if Kylar got better? What if Sensei had them spar against each other and Hawk lost? What would Kylar do than? Would he go back to the way things had been before? Would he use his new skills to go back to making Eli’s life a living hell? What if the other members saw him lose? What if Kylar winning and going back to old habits made them feel like they could follow suit?

It had been the same thing all throughout his school life. At first no one would mention anything about his scar, thinking it was taboo and rude, and than, just one person would point it out, would blatantly mock him for something that wasn’t even in his control, and everyone would trip over themselves to join in.

What if that happened here?

_‘The other Cobra members sure as hell will want nothing to do with you.’_

He could feel his breathing getting deep and quick as he looked around at the other members. None of them stared back. Either they were already in conversation with someone else, or they turned away from him entirely.

He didn’t have friends here. He had followers. People with pack mentality's that would blindly follow after the top alpha.

But he’d seen on nature documentaries what happened to those alpha’s the second they were overthrown. How quickly their pack turned on them.

_‘You’re going to be alone.’_

When Demetri had uttered those words, he’d meant them as a future prediction.

Hawk could see now that it was already true.

“Yo, Hawk,” He knocked away the hand that touched his shoulder with a growl, only just managing to stop himself short of striking right at Kylar’s face.

The older male put his hands up, leaning away as much as he could to get out of Hawk’s reach in case he decided to go through with it anyways.

“Whoa man, chill.”

He wanted to snap at him. Wanted to warn him not to talk to Tory about him and Demetri anymore. But he couldn’t think of a way to do that where it wouldn’t seem suspicious.

So instead he threw his bag off the mat and against the wall to get it out of the way, refusing to move and falling right into his stretches.

Kylar could move away if he wasn’t comfortable, Hawk wasn’t going anywhere.

As he reached for his feet stretched out before him, he looked up, catching eyes with Troy. She still seemed suspicious of him, the look she gave him was proof enough of that, and he found his insides twisting sharply at what that could mean.

Out of all of the members here, other than Hawk himself, Tory proved to be extremely unpredictable. Like Hawk she was ruthless, and fed off the energy of a fight like a drug. They had both done things during fights that they never would have if they’d given themselves times to actually sit and think about it for a moment. Just like Hawk she could order other members what to do and they would jump to follow.

They were pretty much the two that everyone in the group turned to when they didn’t know what to do in a situation. Hawk had even found himself listening to her orders during fights when his mind was to hopped up on adrenaline to think.

What would she have the other members do if he did start to show weakness? How quickly would she turn on him if he hesitated even once?

For the first time ever, Cobra Kai didn’t feel like a space he controlled or was welcome in. Instead it felt like he was wandering blindly through enemy territory, hiding among their ranks like a double agent and was just waiting for someone to sniff him out.

Because he knew first hand what happened when someone fell out of favour with the Cobras, he’d been one of the leading enforcers on that front.

What could he do if they decided he was no longer Cobra Kai material?

He’d watched his sensei toss people out without a second thought, watched as old members of the group who had been here as long as he had were equally shunned and hunted because they were now free game.

But they at least had the other dojo kids sticking up for them. They at least had their friends that would stick by them to make sure they couldn’t be cornered alone. They had other people who could help them at the very least deal with the isolation and attacks.

_‘When Kreese does get enough members that he throws you to the curb, who are you going to turn to then?’_

As Hawk pulled his legs up in the butterfly stretch he found those words bouncing off the walls of his skull.

He’d pissed off so many people, both inside and outside of the different dojo’s, if he lost his place here it would be open season on all sides.

Taking in a deep breath he stretched his arm up and over his head, trying to stay calm as his eyes focused on a small bloodstain on the mat.

He had to become better. Become smarter, and faster, and stronger. He had to learn more than any of the others here.

Because if he somehow did get kicked out. If Tory decided that he wasn’t keeping up with her standards, than he wouldn’t just have to worry about the enemies in here, but all around him, at all times.

If he truly wanted to make sure that he would be safe if he lost his position, he was going to have to become something to scary for them to even think about going after. A true monster. A beast best left alone.

Returning Tory’s gaze, he allowed a single corner of his mouth to tilt upward.

Her eyes only narrowed in turn.


End file.
